The Sinocism China Newsletter For 11.22.12

Happy Thanksgiving, It is not a holiday in Beijing but we are celebrating friends this afternoon. We had a 9 Kg bird delivered yesterday from Fangshan, the Southwest suburb of Beijing that was hit hard in the July floods. It cost $2.90 a pound and while definitely not a free range, organic or heritage turkey it still looks tasty, and will look even better after it spends a few hours in the oven.

Today’s links:

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

Conference Board LEI for China Rose Sharply in Oct.-Caijing – The Conference Board Leading Economic Index (LEI) for China increased 1.5 percent in the month to 245.5, following a 0.2 percent increase in September and a 1.7 percent increase in August, the association said today. Five of the six components contributed positively to the index in October, it said, with renewed real estate activity and upbeat consumer expectations the biggest contributors.

Planned Auction of Non-profit Hospital Causes Concern – Caixin – A non-profit hospital is being auctioned in Beijing, and one expert said a sale could mean prospective buyers will illegally benefit. The Beijing Huanqiu Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, a private community hospital that has operated for over a decade, is going under the hammer.

Rio Tinto Taps Feng Shui for Good Fortune in China: Commodities – Bloomberg – need a fengshui checkup// After weathering the collapse of a $19.5 billion deal in 2009 and the arrest of four executives, Rio Tinto Group (RIO) did what you do in China to court better fortune: It bought a jade horse. Standing at 1.2 meters, or almost four feet, the statue cut from the gemstone has a prime view of Shanghai from the company’s office on the 40th floor of the Wheelock Square building. It’s meant to help avoid any repeat of the rocky relationship the world’s second-biggest mining company has had with China, its largest customer and shareholder.

Toyota Says China Retail Sales Rebounding After Protests – Bloomberg – Retail sales at its Chinese joint venture, GAC Toyota Motor Co., have rebounded close to levels before the wave of anti- Japan sentiment, Feng Xingya, executive vice president of the venture, said at a briefing in Guangzhou yesterday. The automaker cut production to ease pressure on the dealerships and stockpile levels have “reduced dramatically” in the past two months, he said.

Exclusive: China’s backroom powerbrokers block reform candidates – sources | Reuters – interesting story, some of the Reuters reporting on the recent political machinations has been inconsistent, consider this titillating but by no means definitive// Retired leaders in China’s Communist Party used a last-minute straw poll to block two pro-reform candidates from joining the policymaking standing committee, including one who had alienated party elders, sources with ties to the leadership said

China’s Communist party: how do you get admitted? | beyondbrics- Aspiring foreign communists farther afield are no longer able to join the CPC and emulate the adventures of Rittenberg and Alley – adventures that included several years in jail for both men during the Cultural Revolution. But Rittenberg says the CPC today is totally different from the party that he joined, anyway. “Whereas they once were servants of the people, they have become masters of the people,” says Rittenberg, who was recently in Beijing to promote a new documentary about his life, The Revolutionary. He believes the party became corrupted once it came into power. “Dictatorship gives you more dictatorship, not democracy,” he says.

Women in China Leadership Fewer Than Under Mao: Chart of the Day – Bloomberg – Confucian meritocracy?…// The CHART OF THE DAY shows the falling percentage of women in the ruling Communist Party’s Central Committee, a group of about 200 members that includes all seven men on the nation’s top decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee. Women accounted for 4.9 percent of the latest Central Committee unveiled last week, down from 7.6 percent in 1969, the year Nixon took office. Also shown is a ninefold surge in the number of women in the U.S. Congress during the same period.

Wen Jiabao adamant on South China Sea claim- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has made a strong defence of his country’s claim to almost all of the South China Sea after a summit of world leaders ended in bitter disagreement over how to ease tensions in the strategic and resource-rich waterways. “China’s act of defending its sovereignty is necessary and legitimate … and we have properly handled the incidents that were not of the making of China,” Mr Wen told 17 other leaders on the final day of the East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh, according to Chinese vice foreign minister Fu Ying.

Russians back down from leaked U.N. Internet proposal | Politics and Law – CNET News – Both versions of the Russian proposal justify warnings by government officials and policy advocates that some ITU member states — particularly Russia, China, and Iran — would use the conference to advance longstanding efforts to gain better control over key Internet resources currently managed by non-governmental, multi-stakeholder engineering groups such as the Internet Society and ICANN. These concerns were first raised in February by FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal.

TECH AND MEDIA

YY Jumps After First IPO by Chinese Company in 7 Months – Bloomberg – congrats to yy. chinese media claims tiger global invested in last pre-ipo round at 19.55/share, so still far underwater. wonder if they can average down, or short?// American depositary receipts of Guangzhou, China-based YY, each representing 20 ordinary shares, climbed 7.7 percent to $11.31 in New York, after the IPO priced the ADRs at $10.50, the bottom of the company’s $10.50 to $12.50 target range. ADRs surged as much as 12 percent to $11.75 earlier.

Baijiu standards called for – Globaltimes.cn – The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said the chemical residue found in the liquor likely comes from plastic containers, tubes and other materials used during a product’s production, storage and transport, reported Xinhua on Wednesday.

In beautiful China, local polluters still hold sway | Reuters- Environment minister Zhou Shengxian reinforced the pledge at a briefing in Beijing last week, saying China needed to “quickly change the current situation in which too much emphasis is put on economic growth and too little on environmental protection”. Tianying, in the northwest of poor and landlocked Anhui, will test that commitment. Here, like hundreds of other blackspots from the strip-mined cities of the northeast to the mercury contaminated fields in the southwest, the local government is intimately entwined with the most powerful economic interests in town.